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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Estoy en vacaciones

for the first time since being in ecuador! other than state sponsored holidays and my trip to the us that is. So i apologize for the lack of blogging. we weren't even supposed to be in quito today, so you're lucky to get this much! we're about halfway through our travels as the complete edwards family package. we had a fabulous day in otavalo on saturday during which i already bought lots of christmas presents for y'all, so my parents can take them back. my parents were suitably impressed by the quality cheapness and overall enjoyability of otavalo. i'm spoiled forever for shopping. then sunday we made the trip out to tena, in the oriente (eastern rainforest part of ecuador.) the one place on our trip that i hadn't been. the bus ride was everything it was promised to be... 6+ hours along dirt roads along high mountain passes that could wash out at any minute. which they didn't fortunately. but we did have to stop for a) a rolled over truck blocking the road and b) changing one of our tires. but we made it in one piece and highly enjoyed the warm weather, lush scenery, and monkeys running town around in misahuallí (and trying to get into the restaurant we had taken shelter from the rain. it was pretty damn cute. hopefully some of the pictures came out well.) we didn't so much enjoy the vast amounts of rain and weren't really up for the adventure sports (mostly rafting) that tena is known for, so we came back a day early to give us a rest from constant traveling. we did stop off yesterday in papallacta, the amazing hot springs in the mountains on the way back to quito. it's cold and cloudy but the springs are hot and clean and cheap and yesterday practically empty. definitely relaxing :)

today my parents went to mitad del mundo (the cheesy equator museum) while i went to choir, and then we ate more vegetarian food and bought more stuff at the market in quito... so that was a pretty perfect day in quito by my standards. also i talked to richard while my mom was making phone calls. also it was beautiful. oh i think i edited out the part where i went to get my shoes fixed ($4 including cleaning) and the house across the street was on fire.

i probably won't have a chance to put up pictures for a while, but i have a lot in reserve so one of these days we will have a picture bonanza. also becky's boyfriend can prob hook us up with free internet so that would do wonders for my posting frequency. cross your fingers.

ok, i'm off to dinner and packing for tomorrow. early in the morn we head out to the black sheep inn, which i'm very excited about. then back on saturday and off to mindo on sunday! and natalia says she will prob come down to ecuador after all and mayeb do the inca trail with me! so i'm pretty happy with my traveling prospects. ok ok i gotta run... miss you all! (you can fix that by coming to visit me and traveling to all these beautiful places!) katie i want to hear about your mom's visit and the southwest convention and richards tie etc...

1 comment:

richard's tie is quite the sight to behold. "spiffy" does not do it justice.

i kind of want to go to a cheesy equator museum. on the drive to canada the other week, i passed a sign on the highway that marked 45 degrees north, halfway between the equator and the north pole. i felt very close to you, even though i was headed northward, and therefore was further away than i am on any given day. but whatever.